NYCC: 'Batman: Arkham Origins': Mobile Version and New Character Emerge

Batman has a gadget for every occasion. So it's fitting that "Batman: Arkham Origins," the upcoming video game set to release on Oct. 25 for PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360 and PC, will get a mobile version as well.

At New York Comic Con over the weekend, Erin Piepergerdes, a producer at the Chicago-based NetherRealm studios, announced a spin-off mobile title, also called "Arkham Origins," coming soon for iOS and later for Android as a free-to-play game.

"Arkham Origins" is a prequel to the critically acclaimed "Batman: Arkham Asylum" (2009) and "Batman: Arkham City" (2011), set in the early days of Bruce Wayne's career as Batman.

Mobile beat-em-up

The mobile "Arkham Origins" is a beat-em-up fighting game, not a full console version. However, there will be some connectivity between the two games, Piepergerdes said.

'Arkham Origins' on Mobile

For example, players who have both games and have registered them with their Warner Bros. IDs will be able to play the mobile game with Batman as he appears in the 2003 graphic novel "Superman: Red Son."

The move to mobile isn't surprising; the previous "Arkham" game also received a mobile fighting game called "Batman: Arkham City Lockdown," as did "Injustice: Gods Among Us," a fighting game released in summer 2013 featuring Batman and other DC Comics Superheroes, both courtesy of the same studio.

New Character Revealed

In "Batman: Arkham Origins," a newly caped-and-cowled Batman challenges crime lord Black Mask, who retaliates by putting a bounty on the young superhero's head. Now the world’s deadliest assassins have come to Gotham to kill Batman and claim the prize.

That means the game already has an impressive roster of villains, but at New York Comic Con Eric Holmes of Warner Bros. Games Montreal revealed one more: The Electrocutioner.

First appearing in the Batman comics in 1992, The Electrocutioner is an assassin whose suit emits powerful electric shocks. Beating him, Holmes revealed, will win Batman the electric gloves he is seen using to devastating effect in earlier trailers.